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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

#GHA crisis: Muntari & Boateng fought 2 days ago, which spilled over to Boateng insulting the coach when queried about it. #clubmetro

Reliable Twitter sources are saying that Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari have both been booted from the Ghana team. Muntari was out today anyway due to suspension but bad news for Ghana and says something about the potential state of their camp. Bad news for Ghana is good news for the USA. A Ghana win is the last thing U.S. fans should want to see from their game.

I was listening to Mike and Mike this morning and they were reporting that the two Ghana players actually walked off the team because they were not paid money they were owed. Sounds kinda fishy either way.

Ruud van nistelroy say yesterday that a hypothetical path through Belgium, Argentina, and Netherlands is easier on paper than a path through Algeria, France, and Brazil? I mean if we're gonna have pointless debates, why bother making that point?

to make sense in your head. Every team at every stage is better should we come in second. And unless Brazil gets unhealthy doses of home field calls (which they will so moot point) they probably won't make it to the semis.

Objectively (ie factually) you'd rather take the odds of one low probability to win game and one mediocre to win game and one high probability to win game than your odds of three low probability games.

You'd rather try to win 3 tough games in a row than 2 easier games and one seemingly impossible game?

It's sports. And the World Cup at that, anyone can beat anyone on any given day once you get to the knockout rounds. Give me the easier games and Brazil all day, every day.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

You don't think Brazil will make the semis? They haven't set the world on fire, but they still won their group with a +4 goal differential. They may not win the whole thing but I'll be pretty surprised if they don't make the final four.

By the same token, Belgium and Argentina haven't set the world on fire (Messi put them on his shoulders against Nigeria, but they still only won 3-2). Algeria/Russia may be an easier round of 16 game than Belgium, but not necessarily by a huge margin, and beyond that, I don't think France/Brazil is necessarily easier than Argentina/Netherlands.

I think any predictions in that quarter of the bracket is a crap-shoot. 4 South American teams, 1 comes out. S. America is a crapshoot. Slight advantage to Brazil being at home but definitely wouldn't surprise if Chile or Colombia beat them.

Take my chances against Algeria, France and the chance that Brazil makes it to the semifinal.

Also, at that point we could have Altidore back and if it's the U.S. in ONE game versus Brazil. I actually wouldn't doubt us.

Americans love the underdog/me against the world mentality. We play up in those games.

That's actually what worries me about this game vs. Germany, because we've had it circled forever...and now all we need is a tie or a close loss. You've been hyping yourself forever and now you realize that you really don't need to win and you may let down too much.

But back to Brazil, playing them in Brazil that late in the tournament. When no one gave them a chance?

That's the stuff they make movies out of - we do well in that role.

At the same time...we're the U.S., we have NO BUSINESS talking about playing that late in the tournament (we can as fans, because, well...we're fans). That's not saying we can't do it, it's just saying, unlike Brazil and 2-3 others, we haven't earned the right to be put in the group of teams of likely winners.

Bama, FSU, Auburn, LSU, Oregon, Stanford have earned the right to be called preseason Top 5-7 teams without even looking at a player on he roster or knowing anything about THIS YEARS team. Michigan has not. They've got to win a game and at a time and prove they are worthy of being in that group.

Not impossible, just means we don't deserve the hype or to be mentioned in that group at this point...which is fine, go win team 135. It doesn't matter what hype Michigan or the USMNT has earned on 6/26, all that matters is that they're playing in the last game of their tournament.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

Now I don't have to look at Muntari's ass because he refuses to pull up his shorts.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”